


Baking for two (or maybe just for you)

by xxxshuaholic (meclanitea)



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: I actually know 0 about baking but T_T, M/M, mentioned seokhan, stress baking au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-31 15:07:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15122036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meclanitea/pseuds/xxxshuaholic
Summary: Mingyu's stressed, and so he bakes





	Baking for two (or maybe just for you)

**Author's Note:**

> Idea came from [@cravatty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/averyblue/pseuds/cravatty) Check out her works, they're awesome! 
> 
> My submission for Minshua fest~

 

 

Mingyu has a bad habit.

It’s not really a big problem, per say. It’s more about expenditure and the consequences of his actions thereafter but he guesses it’s too late to do anything at this point, so he might as well roll with it.

The College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) results come in less than 24 hours, and as excited Mingyu is for that, he’s also just terrified. He’s prepared for the whole shebang all year and has significantly reduced the time for all his hobbies to solely studying to get a good score.

He knows it’s not the end of the world if he doesn’t get into his first-choice university. His second-choice has a good program as well, it’s just a bit (or rather, a lot) far from his house. This means that he’ll either have to wake up at ungodly hours for the commute and end up supremely tired before class and by the time he comes home; or he’ll have to dorm at the campus or find some convenient housing near the school, which isn’t the cheapest option to say the least.

And Mingyu’s top choice is also where all his favorite architects are from, so the chance of them ever coming in for a guest lecture is _high._

The thought excites him, but the equivalent stress it gives is also currently shimmering in his stomach, and is attempting to rise up his esophagus. He can’t say he’s not sure he’s not bound to vomit soon.

 

And so, he now finds himself with a bunch of ingredients in the middle of his kitchen whose presence have made the realization of what he has done finally sink in. You’d think it’d be when he found himself in the specialized baking store, debating which of the chocolate chip brands he should trust, and not now, when his wallet is thousands of won poorer.

Mingyu can’t help it, baking is really the best distraction of all.

He can go and focus on precise measurements instead of his future. If you ask him, that sounds like quite the plan.

At least it did.

He hadn’t thought this through and bought the amount of ingredients he would use for something like a sleepover or his sister’s birthday, _not_  for stress baking.

Mingyu can easily feed 10 children 7 cookies each like this. The thought of maybe not using all these newly bought baking supplies passes by him briefly before he starts overthinking about when he’d actually be able to use them again (Mingyu just wants to make a lot but he rationalizes otherwise).

He sighs at himself while also grabbing his favorite apron off the the rack.

 

"One and one-fourth cups granulated sugar, same for brown sugar, one and a half cups of softened butter..."

Mingyu scans the rest of the list.

Okay. Mingyu had definitely bought more than enough for this recipe. Well, whatever, considering his accident-prone self, if he ends up dropping the batter onto the floor for no other reason except that his feet have decided to trip themselves, he'd at least have enough to make a _smaller_  batch.

He’s ready to line up the ingredients when the doorbell rings.

Strange.

His mom’s off on a business trip and his dad’s meeting up with some friends. He’s sure that his sister is staying over at a friend’s house, and being alone in the house is pretty much the only reason why Mingyu was able to get away with what he’s about to do.

Maybe they forgot something?

He leaves the his down on the table and walks to his front door.

He doesn’t know why he straight up opens the door before even checking who it is from the peephole. It’s very unlike him but he’s supposing it’s from the adrenaline rush or whatever he has right now that keeps him on his toes and just ready to act and not really _think_.

And maybe that’s why he finds himself dazed when instead of any of his family, he sees Joshua Hong smiling coyly at him.

 

-

Even though Mingyu does fairly well in school at a regular basis, he couldn’t take any chances and went for hiring a tutor to cover all his weaker areas (mostly English and Physics). He did all he could to convince his parents that this is the cheaper alternative to dorming or ending up fainting in class (his mom rolled her eyes on this one but the dramatic flair did its job, didn’t it?).

And that’s how chanced upon Joshua Hong at the tutor bulletin post in the cram school Seokmin goes too.

 

_“Looking for a tutor?”_

_Mingyu has been caught off-guard by the sudden sentiment directed at him. He turns and sees a man much shorter (well most people are shorter than Mingyu), with cat-like eyes looking so expectantly at him, Mingyu can swear they are sparkling._

_“Uh, yeah…”_

_The person cocks his head cutely to the side (at this point Mingyu can recognize that the man is quite good looking and his voice has the gentlest vibe to it)._

_“For which subjects?”_

_“English and Physics.”_

_The man’s lips curve into a smile, and he promptly hands Mingyu a flyer._

_The loose pink paper had the words ‘English’, ‘Physics’,’ Biology’, and ‘Social Sciences’ in large font listed on after another. Right at the end was signed “Joshua Hong”._

_What really caught Mingyu’s eye were his credentials―Bledis University, aka the school Mingyu is gunning for._

_“If you find yourself interested, you can text me or email me with the contact listed. It’s only ₩7500 per hour and we you can always ask questions via text, free of charge, I promise.”_

_Mingyu looks up to see this Joshua guy’s pretty face smiling sweetly at him._

 

 

That had been eight months ago.

Mingyu had done a bit of digging on Joshua before he had contacted him. If you trust every handsome guy you see, you’ll end up as boo boo the fool.

Turns out, Joshua is Jeonghan’s best friend. The latter has been dating Seokmin for the past year and his friend had encouraged Mingyu to take Joshua’s offer.

_“Hyung’s really nice and is really easy to understand! He’s just prone to tease you, but it’s nothing you can’t handle,” Seokmin had said._

And with the advice from his own best friend, Mingyu had texted the older man and they started meeting a few times a week to help raise Mingyu’s grade and to prepare him for the tests.

It worked out pretty well so far: Mingyu’s scores had risen, and he didn’t find those subjects excruciatingly hard during the exam (or at least he likes to think so).

 

The thing is: Mingyu had also developed a biiiiit of a crush on Joshua.

 

Joshua’s easy to be around. He talks to you like a friend earnestly trying to help you, rather than some frustrated person who has no choice to deal with your slowness because it’s their job. Mingyu’s never felt Joshua judge him for not understand some of the simpler concepts are feeling ridiculously happy over getting an easy question correct.

And Joshua’s just fun. He definitely teases Mingyu enough times (and his playful look is just so damn attractive that Mingyu can barely deal) but he knows just when to back off, and never takes it further than he should.

If Mingyu hadn’t been so caught up with the exams, he might have asked Joshua out a long time ago. And well, technically, the exams are now over. Still, the only thing really on Mingyu’s mind right now are his cookies.

 

-

“Hyung? What are you doing here?” Joshua is one of the last people he’d even think to see here. If Mingyu recalls correctly, he lives quite a few stations away, which is why Joshua usually comes over on weekdays since Pledis University is close to the Kim residence.

The smaller boy beams at him and waves a quick ‘hi’. “Hi, Gyu! I was in the area and I thought I’d swing by. Also, I thought you’d be really nervous about the scores so I thought checking up on you wouldn’t hurt.”

Joshua seems to take his time, staring at Mingyu’s entirety and the younger boy feels his cheeks burning.

“Are you…cooking?”

Oh. It’s the apron he’s been staring at. Right.

“Baking, actually.”

“Oh, that explains the pastry books in your room.”

They have all their sessions up at Mingyu’s room. His bookcase is full of books for his hobbies. Some architecture books here, some fashion magazines there, and of course, the recipe books. He hardly reads any fiction, so he guesses that the colorful spines are eye-catching one way or another. He just never expected Joshua to notice those. In hindsight, he should, he’s there a lot after all.

“Yeah, I kind of, um, stress bake, for when, I’m, well, stressed.” Nice one, Mingyu.

“I guess that’s why they call it stress bake, huh?”

“Are you here alone?”

“Yeah. Mom’s on a trip and my dad and sister are both out with their friends.”

“So I guess that makes it just the two of us here right now, huh?”

Mingyu makes a humming noise in acknowledgement. He’s definitely sure that Joshua knows something or has an inkling―he’d never know with that boy, but Mingyu’ll at least be low-key with his obvious reactions.

 

Joshua insisted on accompanying him to the kitchen since he wanted to see ‘where the magic happens’. Mingyu wonders if the older boy bakes. He can imagine Joshua looking stunning in a pasittier outfit, giving treats to children and smiling at his customers, wide and bright. Mingyu can feel the blood go to his cheeks to the idea.

“You’re nervous, aren’t you?” Mingyu jumps.

He knows he’s obvious, but he also hates it. Minghao has constantly teased him about his blatant blushing whenever the topic of his tutor comes up.

The younger boy feels a firm hand on his shoulder and turns around. Joshua looks at him, as if taking the whole of Mingyu in, but soon the tips of his mouth curve up.

“Don’t be. I know you worked hard for this.” Oh. _Oh_. He’s talking about the exam, and totally not about himself. Mingyu would bury his face in his hands right now if he could.

“Baking helps you relieve tension, right? Count me in then, let me help out.” Joshua removes his jacket and smiles confidently at Mingyu.

Mingyu swallows. “You know how to bake, hyung?”

“Nope, but you can teach me.” Joshua looks at him expectantly, still smiling. “It’ll be an equivalent exchange.”

 

After 3 hours later of spilled batches on the floor, slightly-off measurements, and a lot of cleaning everywhere, the last batch is finally out of the over and sit prettily on a plate, along with the others.

“I can’t believe I really made something this good,” Joshua says, inspecting the cookie he’s taken a bite out of.

There’s something about Joshua and food that Mingyu always loves to see. It’s that Joshua enjoys eating and you can just feel his love for his food spill out with his expressions. It’s one of those few things that Mingyu truly knows about Joshua.

Mingyu’s learned a lot about his tutor these past few hours. During their tutoring sessions, Mingyu would usually just pick up a few things every time Joshua visits. He really does prioritize the studying, and tends not to ask too many personal questions. Instead, he finds bits and pieces of what the boy is like and what he likes through anecdotes told by chance or the stories Seokmin supplies when talking about his own boyfriend.

For now, Mingyu relearns a lot of his own assumptions. Joshua is an only child - but it doesn’t mean he can cook. He’s used to take-outs and just plain going-out. When he was younger, his neighbours, or rather, Jeonghan’s family, would have meals with him when his mom comes home too late from work. He’d also ask for some food to bring home for his mother so that she didn’t have to tire herself out after a hard day’s work. Looking back now, he realizes that maybe he should have learned how to cook instead, so that he’d have given her warm meals to come home to.

Mingyu learns that Joshua loves his mother with his whole being and the way his tutor looks so gentle and content when talking about her makes his own heart swell.

He’s known that Joshua plays guitar, but he hears about how he started and who he admires. The older boy looks so animated when speaking, and Mingyu can swear his eyes are lighting up like twinkling stars in space. It makes Mingyu want to gaze at them forever.

Stars. Joshua loves them. He wasn’t able to quite pursue that career path, but he’s at least killing it at physics and Mingyu can attest to that.

It’s somehow overwhelming to have all this information laid out before him now. He’s been wanting to talk to Joshua like this for the longest time. He wanted to know about the person who doesn’t like green and has a love for chicken. He wanted to know about the person who prefers wine to soju and loves humming out Sunday Morning and other Maroon 5 songs. And now the distance between them doesn’t seem so large anymore. There’s still a ways to go, but this is a start.

 

They finish packing the cookies and Mingyu places two full bags onto Joshua’s hands. The tall boy knows that his family cannot possibly finish all of these by themselves, and so he had decided to give a few - a lot - away to his friends.

“You sure that I can have all of these?” Joshua blinks at him. Each bag probably contains about 12 cookies and well, as much as Mingyu would like to say that’s a lot of cookies for one person, as someone who regularly eats the numerous cookies from stress-baking incidents, he thinks 24 is actually quite an okay number.

“Yeah, I really made too much. You can give these to Jeonghan-hyung too.” Mingyu holds up another set up in the air.

Joshua places the ones in his arms in his backpack before taking the last set of cookies from the younger boy. “Hey Gyu, if you pass for your first-choice, is there anything you want?” Their fingers touched, Mingyu pretends not to notice.

He rubs the back of his neck. “Shouldn’t I be the one giving you a gift for sticking it out with me?”

Joshua brings out a light chuckle. “But you’re my student, and we should be celebrating!”

Mingyu shrugs and says the first thing that comes to mind, “Want to bake with me again sometime?” This not-date of theirs turned out really well, and maybe even next time, Mingyu can earn the guts to ask Joshua out.

Joshua’s characteristic soft smile creeps onto his face. “I’d love to.”

The college student wears his backpack and tightens the straps before turning to the taller boy.

He cocks his head. “Also, Mingyu, I’ve been meaning to ask for a while,” Joshua tucks his hands into his pockets, “do you wanna go out on a date with me?”

“Uh, what?”

Joshua shrugs but his mouth curls into a smirk. “You, me, dating. I like you a lot and I want a real date with you.”

“Hyung…you…”

Joshua giggles.

Mingyu can’t believe it. He can’t believe that Joshua Hong is asking him out and how his whole confession scheme in his head has been utterly thwarted by this development. He doesn’t know whether to shout for joy, hug that boy right here and now, or just pinch himself to make sure he’s not dreaming.

 

The results come out the next day and after he’s told almost everyone else about it, it’s not until a few hours have passed, before Mingyu is able to gather courage to send one text.

 ** **Mingyu**** : Hyung! I passed! Is that offer still available?

It only takes a few seconds for his phone to ping and notify him.

 ** **Joshua:****  ;) Looking forward to it.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> this is the first time I wrote a full minshua fic but I hope it's IC enough and everything,,,, I hope you still enjoyed it though ;u;


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